Field report from an apprentice - building a staircase

Adrian is an apprentice in carpentry and joinery. From his instructor he is acquiring new knowledge not only in craft techniques. This is documented in the following report from Adrian about a staircase project that he completed.

Report: The process of building a staircase based on the project created in the 3D CAD SEMA software

In the summer of 2020, August 23, I started working on my first personal project, this being a "U"-shaped balanced staircase. A staircase medium sized with 14 steps (13 in fact, the last step being considered part of the floor for the simple reason that it is continued by the flooring), 6  VANGURI of course and 4 connecting pillars, and the walls of the staircase not being in 90 degrees (respectively 88.2- 94.5), which increased the complexity of its construction process. However, although the scale is at a higher level of complexity it has been offset by the templates made by /from the projecting in the SEMA 3D  CAD software. I am not very experienced yet to work in this software, but I understand the principle on which it is based, namely: Top view, profile and section (in short). During the time I was working on this project I was at the beginning of the 2nd year of my apprenticeship, during which time I had already worked with the SEMA templates, and this made my work easier as I already had experience working with the templates themselves. 

From my own experience I can say that these patterns are the spider in a cell for its prisoner. That is, a necessity because it is easy to work based on them and can easily become a normal work process in the construction of a staircase in a workshop, this being primarily due to the fact that they are drawn on each cut, phrasing, etc. Secondly, every time my master brings the templates to the workshop, they are accompanied by a folder containing the material extract and certain details of the ladder (its angle, details when joining the stringers with the pillars and steps, etc.). Moreover, after I took the next step in apprenticeship, namely designing stairs, to help me understand better, my teacher often told me to think about the templates I work with and try to imagine that in my drawing, which, of course, helped me a lot.

A very beautiful project and a very big one for me. One in which I was given the freedom to work alone (but with the assistance of the teacher, of course, whenever I had a question and advice on how I could work more effectively), to think for myself the work steps that are necessary and to use the right equipment and tools for each process responsibly. Then came the inbination of the pieces of the staircase, an experience in which I had the greatest emotions, but in the end everything worked out properly due, of course, to the teachings of my master, my work and last but not least the project and the templates created in SEMA.

Adrian Nicoalae Prisca

Aprentice Carpenter 2. year at Holzbau Rummel, Romania